I’m late to this post because I had a busy week, including a day without internet. Let’s dive in.
Holy cow – that battle to open the episode was my favorite fight scene since the multitude of great fight scenes they had in Civil War. It was well choreographed, easy to follow, and you felt the strikes really landing. John Walker’s arm breaking was flat out awesome. The one thing I really have to point out is, now that Sam/Falcon is the only punching-person on the show *without* the Super Serum…why is he not getting his skull caved in every time John Walker or a Flag Smasher punches him? It doesn’t make sense to me. They’re really undermining the importance of the Serum when he can seemingly “learn” to be as strong as Captain America with a quick montage running through the forest and doing pushups.
The main thing I took away from this episode was that this show has built both an amazing, complex villain and an exceedingly one-dimensional villain at the same time. It’s a lesson in how to make someone compelling. Karli Morgenthau, the leader of the Flag Smashers, is immediately shown to us as being evil. She’s mad about the snap bringing people back – I get that. But why is she mad? Did people coming back take away her life or her parents job or something? Show us SOMETHING besides her just having random teenage angst. That’s all I get, and all they’ve shown – she does things like give speeches and play with kids, but then she blows up buildings. And I don’t have the slightest understanding why. Angsty is abundant in the world today and it’s not a defining character trait. Maybe that’s a big reveal in episode 6, but I wouldn’t count on it.
On the other hand we have John Walker; someone who has strived for the majority of his life to be a role model, a perfect soldier, a “Captain America” type. He has a downfall because he feels like he’s inadequate in this new battle against super-humans, and he needs that serum. He’s willing to compromise his ideals to get that serum. Underneath his insanity there’s still some truth to what he’s doing – he wants to take down the “bad guys”. His means are misguided, and that’s what makes him a great antagonist. We understand why he hurts and what’s pushing him forward.
I loved the minor shade that Battlestar’s sister threw at Walker in that quick scene with a simple glance; it’s either they knew he was lying about killing Lamar’s killer, or they’ve always looked at him and rolled their eyes because they don’t know why their family member was so dedicated to him.
I can appreciate the Dora Milaje bringing Zemo to the raft, but I was kind of hoping they were going to bring him to Wakanda and tune him up a bit first. It seems they owe him an ass kicking or three. But maybe they’re just that dedicated to justice.
I’m pretty sure us fans couldn’t be more excited for the final episode, but therein lies the problem – there’s only one episode left and it feels like an hour is way too short to tie up all of this. There needs to be a massive battle, a possible reveal of the Power Broker, some explanation as to what Julia Louis-Dreyfus was doing in the last episode…
Oh, and even if Sharon Carter isn’t the Power Broker, she sure is something – I don’t buy that she’s all buddy-buddy with Steve Rogers’ best friends after all that happened. Let’s not forget – Steve Rogers basically chose this woman as his consolation prize after her aunt died, and then ditched her to go back in time and be with that aunt anyway. You’d be crazy to think she isn’t possibly a little scorned by that.
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